The Tropical Fruit Forum

Sunday looks like the best chance of some rain for next week.

Anyone use this? Most weather stations from major forecasters are from airports... this can get you more local temp data from amateur weather stations

https://www.wunderground.com/wundermap

Have you tried this, there are a few tools on the page.  I like the QPF for an idea of how much rain.

https://www.sfwmd.gov/weather-radar/sfwmd-forecast

What Kaz said, but leave one branch of the seedling (un-grafted shoot) to see what your seedling produces.
I had a tree in the ground must have been 8 plus years before it fruited from the seedling, grafted varieties had been fruiting for a few years.  When the seedling fruited, it was a very excellent fruit.  Great tase and nice size.

This way, you both eat your cake and have it

Expected to be heavier tomorrow.

Thanks, I will have to try higher cage for plants. 

There are tons of rabbit in my area and around this time of year I often see young plants with the back completely stripped or in some cases gnawed in half.

It has been terrible the last few days and i  have lost at least 6 seedlings (they particularly love Chempajack they eat those to a stump).  They have gone after mango, gnawed a few in half and removed the bark of an in ground 2 year old plant.  In the past they never went after anything that big.

In cases where I wrapped or protected the plant they must have tiptoed and did the damage above the cage.

If there something I can spray on the plants to keep the rabbits away?

Interested in any suggestions other than making them rabbit stew or trapping and relocating There are way too many).

Is it shaded?

I did an unintended experiment.  I planted two potted seedlings from the same batch, one in some shade and the other in more direct sunlight.  The shaded one lost some leaves and had some dieback.  I am sure there are other factors including different soils and perhaps competition from the roots of the plants shading it but shade may be a factor.
This time of year the angle of the sun is different and lower in the sky, could it be getting more shade ?

525

I just watched the video and the cuttings he showed are not the same as the cuttings with growth at the end of the video.  Not to say the method doesn't work, just think it would have been better if he showed results of the same cuttings in the beginning of the video.  Also would have liked to see how the roots had formed on his cuts to confirm.

Janet

Hi Janet, I suppose you were commenting on the video I posted.
I was not vouching for his success but mine using a methods similar to what he showed with some important differences that I described.  I didn't mean to suggest that his approach worked, but that mine which was similar to his with those differences did.  Based on my success with a similar approach, I don't doubt his method and I am not as skeptical as I would be were I not doing something similar with good outcome.

I have used it successfully and have been able to share a guava that I like with a few friends on the forum. 
I believe one of them actually posted a picture of a started seedling still in its "dome."

Hope that helps

This video is close to what I do but it is missing a couple of very important steps.

https://youtu.be/usTuFLEoyJ8?si=RzeeeBLo_eYH4ACT

First you are not cutting a wedge at the bottom just removing the bark on opposite sides about half an inch to one inch adjacent to a node.  I assume your roots come out at the node.

In place of the orange powder I use a root hormone.  To make the hole for you cutting, use a pencil or something  else with about the same diameter.  Gently push the soil against your cutting after placing it in the hole.  I don't know if this step is important but I do it.  At a minimum, I know it prevents the rooting hormone from being displaced which may occur if you push the cutting into the soil.

The most important missing information is how to keep the soil moist and the top humid.

In my case, I partially bury the cup in a larger pot to that the holes cut in the cup are below ground.  I create a dome above the cup with am old plastic bottle.  I usually will use a 2 liter soda bottle.  I cut off the base and push the bottle into the dirt covering the partially buried cup so that the bottle forms a dome over the cup. I can open or close the cap of the bottle to let in air or keep the humidity vey high.  To keep the soil in the cup moist I thoroughly water the pot (outside the dome) and the soil in the cup will pull what it needs from the pot. The soil in the pot should be a well draining soil and will usually be moist not wet.

I have a slight variant which works well too where I cut a bottle in half, plant in the lower half and use the upper half to make the humidity dome.

Considering some people can root guava in water, I am not sure how critical the moisture management is but it worked for me that way and I continued using that approach.

Good luck.

Is it going in the ground and will it have space to grow wide?

I ask because I suspect with its first big fruiting many of those thin long branches will lay down some.

If you don't have lots of space of want to keep it as compact as you can then you may need to give up on near term fruiting and make some major pruning cuts to try to shape the tree.

If I were to topowork this I will cut either at the yellow or orange line and wait for it to send 3 or 4 new branches.  I will graft the two varieties I was interested in to the regrowth.

In this case I will cut just above the internode and hope for 4 or more shoots that I can reduce to 3 or 4 to graft in to.

By the way, in my case the airlayer took some time to fruit even though it was taken from a tree that had fruited several seasons.
I don't know why other than perhaps it was busy making roots sufficient to feed a tree its size.

Search on YouTube for how to tip mango by Dr Campbel.
It shows how to tip to grow a mango bush vs a tree.